The number of Windsor police officers and staff who took home six-figure salaries came close to doubling in size last year.

Payouts from a provincial arbitration award in January, which raised police wages by 11.7 per cent over four years retroactive to 2011, are a major reason why membership in the six-figure club surged to about 170. Police chief Al Frederick managed to work the increased costs into a budget that stayed the same size by cutting elsewhere, but said he’s not going to be able to do that for much longer.

“It’s not sustainable. There’s going to be a point in time where I can’t provide adequate, effective services to the community. And at that point I can’t reduce any further,” Frederick said. “I’m close to that point.”

An interactive database of local $100K+ earners for 2013.

Windsor police salaries were made public with the release of the province’s annual sunshine list Thursday. The Ministry of Finance complies the names and salaries of all public employees who made more than $100,000 on the Ontario taxpayer’s dime and publishes them every March.

Police aren’t the only public employees in Windsor who welcomed large numbers of new members to the sunshine club in 2012. City of Windsor employees – not including police and firefighters – and the Catholic school board also saw the number of names on their salary disclosure lists increase by about 50 per cent, with the number of city employees on the list approaching 100 and the number of Catholic board employees swelling to more than 200.

A retroactive pay increase is also behind the big jump in city employees who made six figures, said Chief Financial Officer and city treasurer Onorio Colucci. Every two years, the city hires a consultant to compare the salaries of non-unionized staff with those in similar-sized municipalities to make sure Windsor is offering competitive wages, and about 40 employees made the list because of a payout in 2012 that brought them up to the provincial average, he said.

That’s how Chief Administrative Officer Helga Reidel became the top city earner by far with a 2012 paycheque of about $328,000 including taxable benefits, Colucci said. Most of us can only dream of the $218,000 she took home in 2011, but compared to other municipal CAOs, she was underpaid.

Colucci – who did all right himself at about $203,000 – said it’s important to keep in mind that the numbers on the sunshine list can include one-time or fluctuating amounts. “It’s incorrect to assume the amounts you see are their annual salaries on an ongoing basis.”

The same is true of the police salaries that made the sunshine list, many of which include overtime. Some officers make contract duty pay from bars and other businesses who hire police officers for security, which doesn’t cost the taxpayer but is added to the sunshine list total anyway.

Still, mayor Eddie Francis said the swelling number of police on the sunshine list highlights the need to change the provincial arbitration rules that led to the four-year 11.7 per cent pay increase for police, with a first-class constable to make about $90,000 in base pay next year. Pay for the city’s firefighters is also before an arbitrator and Francis said he and other city officials are losing sleep over the prospect of another whopping retroactive bill.

“A lot of us our staying up at night, wondering when that arbitrator’s going to call, saying I’ve made my decision, here’s the award,” said Francis – whose own pay came to about $180,000 including salary, taxable benefits and the municipal officer’s elected allowance. “You can’t do it anymore. The costs are out of control.”

Windsor Police Association president Jason DeJong disagreed. He said the provincial arbitrator did what he was supposed to do and awarded police a pay increase that’s consistent with other comparable contracts.

“Everything goes up,” he said. “In order to provide a safe community, they’re going to have to raise the budget at some point.”

DeJong pointed out that while wages rise along with the cost of living and inflation, the sunshine list threshold stays the same. The first list was published in 1996, when $100,000 was the equivalent of $140,000 today.

Teachers are part of another profession that made far less than $100,000 in 1996, but is starting to break the threshold. More than half the names on the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board’s sunshine list are teachers, while in 2011, it was about one-tenth.

Superintendent Mario Iatonna said a three per cent salary increase brought teachers who perform additional duties, like heading departments or teaching at summer school, just over the threshold. “The top end of the teachers’ scale is such that it would push them over $100,000 if they had any additional work they undertake.”

DeJong said it’s time to consider raising the amount public employees earn before they end up on the sunshine list. “To base it on something from 1996 is not an accurate reflection,” he said.

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Other noteable entries on the 2012 sunshine list, including taxable benefits:

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